Crawl Out Into The Fallout
by ExactChase
Summary: Ruby is mortally wounded during a mission, desperate for help, WBY and JNPR follow a mysterious man into an underground facility. Put into cryo, they wake up 210 years later in a post-apocalyptic world. (No OC's)
1. Radioactive

Ruby was thrown against the hard, cold stone wall, her ears ringing, and her head feeling as though it was vibrating. She felt light-headed as she struggled to stand, her vision becoming blurry. She could see three Cinders walking towards her, merging every few steps. As soon as Ruby got back on her feet, she fell back down. She began to feel very nauseous before falling onto her back, before she felt someone prop her up.  
"Ruby!" She recognized the voice, but didn't know who it belonged to. "Her eyes are open, but she's not responding to anything!" Yang. It was yang. "I think she's in shock, Yang." Another familiar voice said. Blake. "Just apply pressure to the wound."  
Wait. Wound? Ruby looked down at her stomach, where she felt the most pain, and saw Yang pushing down on it, the blonde's head snapping to Ruby as she saw her move.  
Ruby looked to her right to see WB, and JNPR. Blake was trying to find medical supplies, Jaune was trying to call for medical evacuation, Weiss and NPR were trying to stay out of the way.  
Yang looked back at Ruby, who had been looking around, was now lowering her head to the stone floor, and closing her eyes. "This way!" A man in a labcoat told them, holding open a door near Ruby. "Hurry!" Yang paused before picking Ruby up bridal style, and following the man. Jaune went after her, and NPR followed, Blake and Weiss right behind them.  
He lead them to a platform, where Yang set Ruby down, breathing heavily as she did so. "Where are we going?" Pyrrha asked.  
"Vau-" He was cut off by a large nuclear explosion in the distance. The platform went down, a wave of wind passed over the hole the platform went down. Once they got down, a gate rose, and they saw two more men, one with an automatic rifle, the other wearing a labcoat. "Welcome to Vault 111." The man with the gun said. "Your new home."  
Yang picked up her sister, and began walking through the large facility. A woman handed her two blue and yellow jumpsuits. One for her, one for Ruby, whose combat attire was ruined. Yang began to walk down the last hallway, but was stopped by the man from earlier. "Leave your weapons here." He said. She hesitantly complied, and handed him Ember Celica, reaching for Crescent Rose, she realized that they had left it with Cinder's body.  
"Now," The man said. "Put on your vault suits, and we'll put you through decontamination." "What about Ruby?" Yang asked.  
"We can't let you in until you go through decontamination."  
Yang quickly put one of the vault suits on Ruby, and carefully laid her in one of the pods, before putting on her own, and getting in her own pod. Only then did she realize that it wasn't a decontamination pod. It was a cryo-freeze chamber. 


	2. Waking Up To Ash & Dust

Blake's pod so suddenly opened, and she was dropped out. She was freezing. Letting out a chilled breath, she rubbed her arms, and looked around, water dripping from her bangs. She could hear an alarm siren wailing down the hall.

She got to her feet, and approached a control panel beside Yang's pod. She flipped the large switch. The pod made a metallic whooshing noise, letting frozen air out of the sides, the motors whirring as they slowly brought the door open. The blonde fell forward, luckily caught by Blake.

"What's going on?" Yang asked, not able to see Blake's face.

"You have hibernation sickness." Blake said in a low, growling voice, smirking to herself.

"Blake." Yang said. "I swear to God if I had fallen for that and you'd have said, 'someone who loves you'. I would have smacked the shit out of you."

"I know." The faunas said, setting the brawler down.

Leaving Yang sitting at the base of the pod, Blake went around, opening the others pods, avoiding Ruby's, as she didn't want to open it until they had the proper medical supplies.

Yang soon got up, and went for Ruby's pod. "Don't." Blake said, opening Pyrrha's. "She could bleed out."

"We're not gonna leave her here, are we?"

"No, no, no. Of course not. We just need to find medical supplies before we open that pod."

"I'll *shiver* s-see if-f I can f-find anything." Ren said, making his way towards the nearest door, having already unfrozen Nora, who had quickly heated up, and was skipping merrily behind him.

The pair came back a few minutes later, a few boxes stacked in Nora's hands.

"What did you find?" Yang asked.

"Blood storage, defibrillators, a small heart rate monitor, something called a Stimpack, and a bunch of bandages."

"Painkillers!" Nora added.

"That too."

"And heaters."

"Right. Also, this." The stoic boy pulled out a handgun and tossed it to his leader, who failed to catch it. Everyone jumped when it hit the floor expecting it to go off. "Bad throw." Ren said, pulling a few mags out of his pocket, he handed these to Jaune.

"Okay," Blake said. "When we do this, we gotta make sure nothing bad happens. Right? Yang and Pyrrha are going to catch her and lower her down. Jaune, put the clasp for the heart rate monitor on her index finger. Make sure the machine's plugged in first. "

"Right." Jaune said, plugging it into the wall next to the heater they had plugged in.

"And Yang, Pyrrha, set her down in front of the heater. We want her to unthaw quickly. I'll give her the Stimpacks, which are healers apparently." Blake read the box as she said this. "And Ren, Nora, Weiss. Stand by for a blood transfusion."

"Okay!" Nora said, bouncing as she listened to Blake tell the others what to do.

Blake put her hand on the switch. "Ready?" She asked the others, looking around. Yang and Pyrrha were standing in front of the pod, hands intertwined. Pyrrha looking determined while Yang just looked worried.

Jaune looked as though he was contemplating what would happen if they fucked this up. Because, well he was. Ruby was his best-friend. And he was not okay with her dying.

The other three were leaning against the wall, looking at Blake. If anything, Blake was the most worried. Ruby was pretty much the glue in team RWBY. If she died, they'd probably turn on each other, and if what Blake thought the outside looked like was accurate, then they needed her. Bad.

The only thing Blake could compare how much the team needed Ruby to was The Walking Dead. Once upon a time, Ruby had made the executive decision that the team needed scheduled time together. So she got them all to start watching The Walking Dead on Sundays. And from what Blake gathered; the group needed that Rick guy. Without him they would have stayed just outside of that one city. And Blake believed that without Ruby, they'd choose the easy way out, and stay in that bunker for the rest of their lives.

Thinking about the nights that they had spent watching TV, reminded Blake of Zwei. Crap. She thought. They had forgotten about Zwei. He had been with them before, but who knows where he was now. Probably somewhere in the bunker.

Blake hit the switch, and the pod opened, hissing, as it slowly opened. Ruby fell forward, and Zwei rushed out, running around like a madman. Er. Mad dog.

Despite the distraction in the form of a corgi, Yang and Pyrrha still caught Ruby, and Jaune still put the clamp around Ruby's finger.

While the were setting her down, Pyrrha used her semblance to bring the zipper down on the vault suit. Blake pulled apart either side, and slammed the Stimpack into Ruby's chest, injecting it, she saw Ruby's wounds begin to heal, quickly, then stop before they were done. Blake used up three more before Ruby's eyes opened.

She looked around in confusion. "Where are we?" She hoarsely asked. "What's going on? Why are my clothes wet?"

Yang helped Ruby sit up, then stand. The red began to lose the vault suit, dropping it to her ankles and stepping out, then realizing that her normal clothes were ruined by the blood.

Blake, Pyrrha and Yang all stood in front of Ruby, being the tallest, they allowed her to change. Blake had also found a white undershirt to give her, and Ruby found that her cloak was absolutely fine.

Once Ruby was fully dressed in the blue and yellow suit, the other three walked away. "Let's get out of here." Ruby said, striking an epic "I'm back bitches" pose.

Like, if this was a movie, the three would have dispersed, and the camera would have dollied in, getting a close up, Ruby would have spoken her line, and BOOM! Credits! Cause I'm ending the chapter here.


	3. I'm Breaking Out

"Let's get out of here." Ruby said, turning towards the others. "But, first; I need to know which way we came in."

Jaune patted the now closed steel door. "No way we're getting through here." He said.

"Hey, Pyrrha?" Ruby asked. "Mind opening that door?"

"I don't see why not." Pyrrha said, using her semblance to open the door.

"Thanks." Ruby said, ducking under the door, as Pyrrha could only get it up so far.

Once everyone but Pyrrha went through, Yang held the door up, and let her through. At this point, the others (excluding Ruby) were trying to find their weapons, which weren't where they left them.

"Where's our stuff?" Nora asked.

"How long was I out?" Ruby whispered, kneeling over the body of a dead man in a lab coat. She picked a gauntlet off of his skeletal remains, strapping it to her wrist, Blake asked, "What's that?"

Ruby waited, letting the machine boot up, the screen reading— "Pip-Boy." Ruby told her.

"Would you like the tutorial?" The green and black screen asked her.

"Yes." Ruby mumbled, pressing the "yes" button. "Yes, I would."

"Why's this thing so slow?" She asked no one in particular.

"Experiencing issues?" The device asked her. "Click here to find out why."

Ruby clicked the "here" and immediately regretted it. "God—" Ruby somehow stopped herself from cursing. "So much porn." She said. "I'd like to delete all."

Once she finished fiddling with the Pip-Boy, she looked towards the big vault door. "I'm assuming that's the way out?" She asked them. They collectively nodded.

Ruby looked down off the bridge that was currently folded up, preventing them from getting to the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a control panel, leaping over the railing, she slid across the panel. Reading the instructions, she discovered that she needed to plug her new gauntlet into the panel, and confirm her identity.

She hoped for the best, and plugged it in, the door opening as she pressed the button. However, the bridge did not go out, so Ruby backed up, and sprinted towards the door, limping as she did so, as the Stimpacks had focused themselves on her huge wound, and not her leg.

When she jumped, she fell a little short, and slammed chest-first into the side, grasping the grated floor, she managed to hold herself up. Yang let out a nervous, quiet squeal, as Ruby let out a wheeze.

"Long live the king!" Nora joked, earning a punch in the shoulder from Yang, as Ruby pulled herself up, rolling into her back to catch her breath.

After a few minutes of heavy breathing, she stood, and the others came across when she moved out of the way.

The eight followed the metallic hallway until they found a flight of stairs, Ruby leapt over the railing while the others went down the stairs. Except Nora, who did the same as Ruby.

Once they all got onto the elevator that brought them there, it went up, into the darkness.


	4. How To Save A Life

A/N: I just want to say that this story will be a mix of hilarity, and drama. If you couldn't tell.

Ruby shielded her eyes from the sudden light of the sun. Once her eyes adjusted to the light, she took a look around. "Oh my God." She said.

The land was desolated. No life grew for as far as Ruby could see. Destroyed cars were everywhere, rusting for being out for so long. The buildings around them were also destroyed, vines and such growing on them.

"What happened?" Ruby asked. "How long… How long was I out?"

"I don't know." Yang said, also shocked, taking in the destruction of the city they once knew as Vale.

Weiss looked at her father's corporate building, with the family crest on the side, reading "Schnee". The points on the snowflake had long fallen off. The H hanging down. The windows were smashed, and parts of the walls were missing.

"How did the the tower survive this?" Jaune asked.

"That's what it's designed for." Weiss said. "Too bad Father didn't think of missiles."

Ruby sat down on the platform, Zwei pushing himself under her arm. "What happened?" Ruby asked again.

"Someone bombed us." Blake said, still staring at the cityscape.

Ruby looked down at her feet. "What happened to Dad?"

"Try not to think about it." Yang said, sitting beside her sister and putting her arm over her shoulder, pulling her into a hug.

"Do you know what this means?" Nora asked them. They were shocked that Nora was now being mature about their situation. "No lines. Ever." She shattered that surprise, but kept her personality intact. "No lines for what?" Pyrrha asked.

"Anything! Ever!"

"Excuse her." Ren said. "The only thing she needs to be happy is other people."

They all nodded, saying that it was fine. After all, it was just Nora being Nora. The girl had no shame to be herself. That was something they could all agree on. Even Weiss, who once argued with Ruby over what Ruby's opinion was.

"Now what?" Jaune asked.

They all turned to Ruby, who was still staring at her feet. "Give her a minute." Yang told them. "Give her a minute."

The only way they could tell that Ruby wasn't completely broken was that she was slowly petting Zwei's head. After a few minutes, Yang leaned in and whispered in Ruby's ear, resting her forehead against the side of the younger girl's head. "You gonna be okay?" Ruby slowly shook her head, moving so slowly, and so little, that only Yang knew her answer, as she felt Ruby's head move.

"It's gonna be okay." The blonde whispered.

"No." Ruby hoarsely said, holding back tears. The only thing that stopped her from breaking down was that Weiss and Blake were there. She couldn't break. She was their leader. She was supposed to be strong. Show them that it wasn't over. Show them that the world hadn't really ended. She knew that she had to get up. She knew she had to act like none of it bothered her. But she couldn't. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak in fear of breaking down.

Yang pulled Ruby into a tight hug, shielding her from all of this. And then Ruby broke. She began to sob quietly, hoping none of them could hear her, or even see that her body was shuddering with each sob.

"It's okay." Yang told her, tightening the hug. "It's okay."

Ruby wanted to tell her that it wasn't. To tell her that they were going to die. But she didn't. She couldn't. Not that she wasn't able to, but for the same reason she didn't break down sooner.

Ruby stopped when she heard shots. Gunshots. Someone was shooting. Someone was alive.

She pushed off of Yang and began to sprint in the direction of the shots, the others running after her. As soon as Ruby entered the city, a bullet hit the ground in front of her. She stopped, and jumped behind a wall. Jaune, Yang, and Blake all took cover behind the same wall, the others on a wall across the road.

Jaune stuck his head around the corner, pointing the handgun Ren gave him earlier at the sniper, he fired three shots before taking cover again, bullets hitting the other side of the wall. Jaune shot around the corner once more. This time they heard a cry of pain, and a loud thud. Jaune peeked around the corner and saw the sniper, now lying on the road, face down.

Ruby was the first to go forward, grabbing his sniper, some ammo, and a few other necessities. Apparently, Jaune had shot him in the arm and he had fallen off the building. As Ruby went to grab the bullet-resistant vest, he flipped over, and put a knife to her throat. She froze.

Without hesitation, Jaune lifted his gun and put one into the guy's skull. He dropped the knife, and Ruby grabbed the vest.

"Thanks, Jaune."

"Don't mention it. Like, seriously. I'd rather not think of that ever again."

A/N: That's this chapter. Was that long enough? I hope so. Anyway. With the pairings, because I know how much the FNDM loves pairings. I'm doing all the canon pairings. Except one. And I'll also do one of my favorite pairings.


	5. It's Time

A/N: For some reason people think this story's gonna have White Rose. It won't. That's my notp. No monochrome. No bumblebee. No enabler. No ladybug. No Freezerburn. Renora is the only one I'll tell you. The others you'll have to read to find out.

Ruby gripped her sniper rifle, and kicked in the door of the building the sniper had been on top of. The others followed her, Yang wielding a handgun she had found on the sniper's body, that Ruby had missed.

The inside of the building was mostly polished wood, but it was also falling apart. The wood had been split, moss and vines were growing on the walls. Blocking the main staircase was a rusting steel gate.

Yang went to kick in the gate, but Ruby stopped her. "We don't wanna let them know we're here." She said.

"Right." Yang said.

"They already know we're here." Weiss protested.

"No they don't. Or else they'd be coming down those stairs." Blake said.

"Get the fuck out!" Someone yelled.

"They know we're here." Ruby said.

"What's the plan?" Jaune asked her.

"Split up. Jaune, you're with me. Weiss and Pyrrha. Nora and Ren. Blake and Yang."

"Are you saying Jaune and you are a group and the rest of us have our own groups," Nora asked, "or are you saying that Jaune's with you and all of us?"

"She named the groups," Ren said, leading her away. "Wouldn't be splitting up."

Ruby sighed and face palmed. "Jaune and I'll go first. We'll signal for Pyrrha. Then Yang. Then Nora."

Ruby and Jaune carefully walked through a side hall, that had, at one point, been full of artifacts from the Great War. Now there was nothing, glass on the floor from where people smashed the glass cases. As soon as they reached the main staircase, they saw a man holding a twelve gauge. Ruby charged him, Jaune behind her.

She kicked him in the face, and he slammed the butt of his gun into her head, dazing her, as Jaune kicked his legs out from under neath him, and put a round into his head. The two waited, listening for anyone coming, before searching his body. No one came.

"You okay?" Jaune asked Ruby, seeing the blood running down from her forehead.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm fine."

He used his sleeve to wipe away the blood. "There you go." He said.

Then she collapsed.

A/N: I know this chapter was short, but I really wanted to build suspense for the next chapter. Mwhahahaha!


	6. Breath Taking

Jaune immediately dragged Ruby to the side when he heard someone coming down the stairs, making sure to grab the man that he had killed as well. Then he tried to wake Ruby up.

"Come on!" He whispered. "Wake up! Com'on, Ruby." As he said this, he lightly pushed her head back and forth.

Next, he checked her breathing. Which was non-existent. He began to panic. She wasn't breathing. His breath grew as he tried to remember what to do. Was it to put her in the recovery position? What was the recovery position again? Right. Lay her in her side and prop her head up with her arm. That couldn't be right. That sounded ridiculous. Oh, right. CPR.

He pushed down on her chest three times, then, worrying about this next step, he put his mouth to her's and exhaled. Repeating the process, he began to lose confidence that she would be fine. In the movies he'd seen this never worked out well, and that was with people who were CPR certified, like action stars, paramedics, and doctors.

Then he thought a bit more. Didn't a lack of air cause brain damage? He didn't know for sure, but he didn't want his friend to be brain damaged.

Suddenly, his prayers were answered and Ruby took a deep breath. Her eyes slowly fluttered open. "W-What happened?" She asked, propping herself up with her elbows.

"You passed out and stopped breathing." He told her, leaning back against the wall.

Ruby looked at the wall beside Jaune, and her eyes widened. Jaune turned to his right, and saw the barrel of a gun in his face. He raised his hands, and the gun was pulled away, only to come right back and hit him in the face, knocking him out.

His assailant turned towards Ruby, only to see that she was aiming her weapon at him.

"Listen." Ruby said. "I could shoot the flea off a dog's back with this gun." She cocked it. "And it's aimed straight at your head."

~Line Break~

WBY and NPR jumped when they heard the loud gunshot, followed by the sound of something hitting the wall, something gooey. Then a loud thud. Of course that was just the closest gunshot, others being faint as they were somewhere else in the building.

Yang peeked through the steel grate, peering through a long hallway, and another grate, she saw Ruby run by, disappearing out of sight as quick as she had appeared.

~Line Break~

Ruby looted the body of the man she had just killed, finding ammo, and medical supplies. She dragged his body, throwing it on top of Jaune to keep him safe. Then she ran up the main staircase, running into a raider.

"Hey." She said.

"Hey."

Then she decked him with her gun, he fell to the ground, but wasn't knocked out. Ruby then put a quick bullet into his head.

"Smash the gate!" She yelled down to her teammates, who heard her. Pyrrha used her semblance to make the two gates collapse in on themselves.

Blake picked up a shot gun that was lying at the bottom of the stairs, and Ruby tossed Pyrrha another twelve gauge.

Looting the corpse of the man at the top of the stairs, Ruby found a knife and some duct tape. Using what she had, she securely taped the knife onto the gun, making a bayonet. After all, it was what she was used to. Kinda.

The seven went through the building, killing anyone who attacked them, and looting their corpses to survive. By the end, they all had twelve gauges, Ruby out one on her back to give to Jaune when he woke up. Ruby also had makeshift leather armor atop of her vault suit.

Once they had cleared out the whole building, someone called to them. "Over here!"

Not recognizing the voice, Ruby pointed her gun in their direction, seeing that it was a black man in an old timey military outfit.

Ruby motioned for the others to stay back while she approached him. "Friendly?" She asked. He nodded, and she put her gun down.

"We need your help." He said. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind. What is it?"

"We need you to clear out this city of these fucking raiders."

Ruby chuckled. "There's only eight of us."

"Yes. I know. One of you can do it. Just get a fusion battery from the basement, go up to the roof. There's power armor up there. Use the power armor to rip the gatling gun off of that crashed fighter jet, and mow them down."

Ruby's eyes widened in excitement, and she used her semblance for the first time in a while, dashing downstairs, grabbing the battery and bolting up the the roof.

She slammed the battery into the power armor's back, and turned the wheel. The entire backside opened up, allowing Ruby to step in.


	7. Deathclaw

Ruby stepped into the grey power armor. It was nothing like what she expected, but she'd take what she could get. In fact, she had never seen anything like it. She expected the Altesian Paladins that they had fought on the train back at Mountain Glenn. But this was different. It was more humanoid than the Paladins, and a little more clunky, but nowhere near in size comparison. Compared to herself the suit was huge, but this was only because she was a small person.

She looked to her right, seeing a crashed helicopter/plane thing beside her, crashed into the roof, rubble and jagged metal everywhere. Ruby ducked through the opening in the side, moving past the broken chair, she gripped the machine gun turret attached to the vehicle. And, using the strength from the suit, she ripped the gun out of its stand, the screws screeching in protest, ending with a loud clank as the screws finally snapped.

"This is a nice gun." She mumbled to herself. "I shall dub it...um…" Ruby read the inscription on the ceiling, then coming up with a name. "The Vertibird."

Having given a name for her weapon, (because she's Ruby) she leapt down from the building, landing on the pavement with a loud, mechanical thud, along with the sound of Pistons retracting.

WBY and NPR could hear this noise, and felt the vibrations from where they were standing, some of them almost losing their balance. "The hell was that?" Weiss asked, speaking for all of them.

"It was probably your friend with the Power Armor." Their new friend, Preston explained.

With each step Ruby took, Pistons retracting sounded off, making it easier for Ruby to lug around the large, clunky armor. And with that, "The Vertibird", which was currently firing thirty rounds a second at some poor raiders.

Once Ruby believed that she had thoroughly fucked their shit in, she began to make her way back to the museum. Just before she reached the front door of the building, the pavement began to split and crack, moving upwards as something pushed on it. Ruby spun around, aiming her weapon at it, a little scared by this show of power. "The hell?" She asked no one in particular. Her question was soon answered, as a huge lizard-esque creature rose out. It had huge horns on its head, and rather large claws. It reminded Ruby of a Beowulf, but was much bigger.

The creature let out a pants-shitting roar that could be heard for miles, telling anyone who could hear it, to get the fuck out of here.

WBY and NPR, however, needed to know what it was. "And that?" Pyrrha asked Preston.

"That…." He paused. "Is a Deathclaw. Your friend needs help."

Without a moment's hesitation, the six dashed for the door, running out to where this "Deathclaw" was. When they got out onto the street, they saw that Ruby was dumping rounds into its skull, seemingly pissing it off. WBY and NPR all began to aid their friend, firing their own weapons at the creature. It wasn't long before the Deathclaw limply fell to the ground.

"That was close." Ruby said, panting as she walked up to where her friends stood. "My power armor is almost out of power."

"What now?" Blake asked.

"We go talk to that guy."

"Preston?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah." Ruby panted, stepping out of her armor, taking the power core with her. When she stepped out, the other's notice a significant increase in leather armor, along with an assault gas mask. "You guys should take anything you find useful off of these raiders. I sure did."

Ruby entered the building, having sent them off so that they didn't notice Jaune was missing.

She poked her head into the room where she left the blonde, seeing the body she had his him under overturned, and Jaune gone. Ruby glanced back out to the others, making sure he wasn't among them before having a freak-out that already, one of them was missing. She dashed up the stairs to where Preston was. "Have you seen a blonde guy around here?" She asked.

"No, ma'am." He told her, "We're in your debt. If you need the Minutemen for anything, just ask."

Ruby removed her mask, holding it under her arm. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind." She told him, kneeling down as Zwei ran up to her, emerging from the room the Minutemen were housed in.

"Here's some compensation for your help." He pulled out a small, beat up tin, and handed it to her. Ruby inspected the box, seeing a 200 written on the top. "What is this?" She asked.

"It's two hundred caps." He told her.

"You'll have to forgive me. This is all so new to me. To all of us." She stuffed the tin into her pouch, which she had found on a raider, and was now using it to carry ammo, and her fusion core.

"You're vault dwellers, aren't you?" He asked.

"We came from a vault. Yes."

"Nobody warned you about all this?"

"Nobody was around. We were put on ice the day the bombs fell."

"Do you know how long it's been?" He asked her, looking concerned.

"No idea." She told him, shrugging.

"The bombs dropped in 2015. It's 2226."

"Two hundred years?" She gaped, trying to comprehend the information.

"That's two hundred… Lien? Is that what they called it?"

Ruby nodded. "Thank you."

She turned and began to walk back to where the others were. They had finished looting the raiders, and were now sitting on the stairs.

"We've been out for a while."


End file.
